Re: Overheard on the scanner

In article <fvuucm$3p$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Paul Ciszek) wrote:

> In article <ddfr-DB668D.17545107052008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> David Friedman  <ddfr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >
> >1. What is your view of the origin of rights to property in land? How 
> >did you get the right to exclude trespassers?
> >
> >2. How do you feel about other forms of trespass? Are planes allowed to

> >fly over your land? They are probably out of range of your shotgun, but

> >perhaps you could acquire something better. What about radio stations 
> >broadcasting their signals across your land? If your neighbor drills an

> >oil well and pumps, with the result that oil originally under your land

> >flows under his and up, are you entitled to smash his rig, on the
theory 
> >that it is being used to steal your oil?
> 
> On an earlier occasion, weren't you complaining that the state wouldn't
> let you pave/landscape/build some land that you owned in the way that
> you prefered?  At the time, you seemed to be a believer in absolute
> property rights.

1. I cannot remember such a post--perhaps you could point it out.

2. You can find my views on property in land--from the standpoint of 
economics, which I think I understand better than moral philosophy--in 
the chapter on the subject in my _Law's Order_. It's even available on 
the web, linked to my site.

3. You seem to assume that the only alternatives are absolute property 
rights or no property rights, and that the relevant conflict is between 
the owner and the state. But the state, in the sort of context you are 
describing, is itself claiming a property right--the right to decide for 
the owner how his property is used. What we have been discussing in this 
thread is not private property vs state property but private property vs 
commons.

-- 
 http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
 Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
 Published by Baen, paperback in bookstores now